Sisterly Love: Women of Note in Pennsylvania History ed. by Marie A. Conn and Thérèse McGuire (review)

This volume is a collection of biographical sketches of seventeen Pennsylvania women who were professionally active from the mid-eighteenth century to the late twentieth century. The variety of their work concerned education, reform, religion, medicine, journalism, business, and the arts. These women range from a Moravian eldress, a Civil War nurse and medical missionary in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to a computer programmer, social activist, and human resource expert during the twentieth century. While the anthology includes well-known women, such as Fanny Kemble, Ida Tarbell, and Rachel Carson, it aims to include women who have “escaped the analytical gaze of historians” (viii), such as artists (Cecilia Beaux, Violet Oakley), educators (Assisium McEvoy, SSJ, Mary Brooks Picken), and entrepreneurs and activists (Gertrude Hawk and Adrian Barrett, IHM). This book is a product of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium of Higher Education (SEPCHE), a collaborative effort of eight small colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area, most of them Catholic. The editors’ intent is to “evoke amazement, wonder, and pride in women who were anything but ordinary,” with the hope that these women’s stories will serve as “as inspiration for the reader to reach beyond the routine” (viii). The majority of the authors are faculty members at SEPCHE institutions.

The most successful articles are those that combine solid research with a persuasive narrative, such as the one on Rachel Carson, which details her personal and professional life, including her loving relationship with Dorothy Freeman, as well as her writing career and environmental activism. Similarly, the piece on Sister Assisium demonstrates her crucial role in developing curriculum for Catholic public schools as well as her leadership in advocating higher education for Catholic nuns. Her publications on education as well as her role in founding Mount Saint Joseph (Chestnut Hill) College reveal the extensive range of her influence not only in the Philadelphia region but across the nation.

The essays, unfortunately, are disparate. Some of the articles are scholarly and analytical in focus, utilizing up-to-date scholarship, while others lack scholarly rigor or are merely personal reminiscences. Some of the articles read more like encyclopedia entries than in-depth studies and contextual histories of particular women. Some are spiritual in orientation rather than historical. The unevenness of this publication is further hampered by the lack of a standard citation format; some articles use the Chicago Manual of Style, others the Modern Language Association, and still others utilize the American Psychological Association system. This volume will be of interest to general readers who want to know about the contributions of Pennsylvania women.